Summary

The QRI was administered with Jake in multiple sittings. On the first day, Jake was given

the Word Lists on the Pre-Primer 1, Pre-Primer 2/3, and Primer reading levels. Jake was shown

the list of words, and he proceeded through them as he was able. If Jake did not know a word, he

simply skipped it and moved to the next on the list. The reading passages were administered on

the second day. Jake was given the Pre-Primer 2 passage first because Jake had scored

instructional on the Pre-Primer 2/3 Word List. Jake’s performance on the passage cause him to

be progressed to the Pre-Primer 3 passage. Likewise, because of Jake’s performance, he was then

given the Primer passage to read. Jake demonstrated incredible difficulty with the Primer

passage, and it was considered to be at his frustration level. As a result, instructional goals were

based on his competencies and needs as outlined in the Pre-Primer 2/3 level.

As a 3rd grade student reading at about a second semester Kindergarten level, reading

endeavors can cause immense frustration and in turn cause avoidance. Despite his difficulties,

Jake demonstrated numerous strengths, specifically in reading, throughout the assessment

periods. The first to mention is Jake’s acknowledgement of reading as important. Though his

dislike was apparent through his responses to the surveys and inventories, Jake frequently stated

that reading was an important skill to have. He would refer to his hopeful future as a football

player when he would need to be able to read in order to understand his contract with a team.

Jake’s ability to apply the importance of reading to his own life is an incredibly valuable aspect

of reading motivation that will likely encourage his continual development of such skills.

In regards to specific strengths in the reading process, Jake illustrated skill in phonemic

awareness and comprehension. First, based on performance on the Yopp-Singer assessment as

well as classroom observations, Jake has mastered the phonemic awareness areas which include
onset and rime, segmentation, and syllabication. He receives one-to-one phonemic awareness

instruction two times in the week, and during each period, he quickly and accurately

accomplishes the material. In a similar manner, comprehension was surprisingly one of Jake’s

reading strengths as well. For example, when presented with an explicit question from the text,

Jake was quickly able to recall information he had read and use details from the text in his

responses. Because of Jake’s decoding difficulties, it was expected that his comprehension would

also be an area of weakness. However, it quickly became apparent that Jake’s ability to answer

explicit text questions is undoubtedly one of his strengths in reading. This demonstrates that Jake

exhibits a well-functioning memory. As Jake progresses to further grades, this skill will continue

to benefit his achievement and support his learning.

Based on Jake’s performance on the assessments, it is apparent that he is lacking in many

areas of crucial reading competencies. Perhaps the most significant deficit exhibited by Jake is

his lack of motivation to read. Although Jake showed recognition of reading as important, it does

not appear that Jake has applied the concept to his current state of learning how to read.

Frequently, as discussed on the surveys, Jake referred to reading as a boring activity, or he

verbally refused to participate in the pre-assessments and intervention lessons. This is a huge

factor that will play a part in Jake’s reading achievement and progress throughout his education

career. In order to be successful, it is imperative that Jake is motivated to read.

Focusing specifically on the reading process, Jake exhibits needs in the following areas:

last sound identification, sight word recognition, word decoding strategies, and inferencing.

During the Yopp-Singer assessment and reading passages, it was apparent that Jake often

substituted or deleted the last sound in a word. Jake would benefit from explicit instruction and

practice with this skill in order to ensure Jake hears each component of the word.
 Similarly, the Word List assessments made it clear that Jake lacks the sight word

recognition abilities appropriate at his grade level. Jake’s sight word recognition only extended

to the Primer level before he reached frustration. Jake’s inability to identify sight words will

negatively impact his success with fluency and comprehension if it persists through future

grades.

In regards to word decoding strategies, it appeared that Jake did not have a working

knowledge of or apply several phonics generalizations. As a result, Jake was unable to accurately

decode numerous words during the reading passage assessments. Because of Jake’s status as a 3rd

grader, it is crucial that he learn word attack strategies in order to be successful in decoding

words in the general education classroom and curriculum. As Jake moves into 4th grade,

decoding is assumed to be a skill that students have acquired, and it plays a vital rule in

comprehension of material.

Lastly, inferencing was also identified as one of Jake’s weaknesses. Jake was not able to

answer any of the implicit questions correctly during the comprehension assessments associated

with the reading passages. Inferencing is a student’s ability to read between the lines of the text

and use abstract reasoning to understand deeper meaning or unsaid details. Inferencing is a

means by which readers build meaning to supplement the explicit information provided in a

reading selection. Especially as he progresses to future grades, Jake will need to acquire the

ability to gather implicit details from the text.